Dixie Hart

the base and along the rocky sides were mists as dense as clouds, through the filmy upper edges of which the yellow light shone as through a mighty prism, dancing on the dew-coated

n into the village of Chester, only half a mile away, stood his house, the eight rooms of which were divided into two equal parts by an open veranda, in which there was a shelf for water-pails, tin wash-basins, and a towel on a clumsy roller. A slender woman, with harsh, sharp fe

ed, or ever could want. They say every cloud has a silvery lining, but my cloud was made out of lead-and not rubbed bright at that. I reckon, if the truth must be told, that the whole mistake was of my own making. Whatever the Creator does for g

fence into the yard of an adjoining farm-house, a diminutive affair of only four rooms and a box-like porch, he saw an attractive figure. It was that of a graceful young woman about twenty-

the powder and lead that it would take to kill him. Look what she's took on her young shoulders, and goes about with a constant smile and song on her red lips. Yes, Dixie Hart shall be the medicine I'

er exercise, and with the axe in hand she came to him. Her large hazel eyes held a mystic ch

t where you sell goods, but I thought it might save me a trip to town to ask you if you

he axe from her, and ran his thumb along the blunt and gapped edge. "Look here, Dixie," he said, "I thought you was too sensible a farmer to discard good tools. This axe is an old-timer; you don't find such good-tempered steel in the axes made to sell thes

you'll le

of you delving in the hot sun with a tool that won't cut mud! You oughtn't to chop wood, nohow. You ain't built for it

teeth. "They want me to quit work, and get some man to tote my load. I reckon if the average young fell

r if they could see the insides of their prize-packages," he returned. "I reckon neither side is as wise while courting

sympathetically. "Mean people will say mean things; but you've got friends that stick to you powerful close. I've heard many a one say that in taking

ot going to pass as better than I am, Dixie; I'm just human, neither better nor w

e often wondered if the busybodies got it straight. I've heard that

lly had all the gals after him. I was afraid he was going to cut me out, and I was fool enough to-well, I used to hope, when I'd see him so popular in company, that he'd make another choice. And he might-he might have done it-for he was the most wishy-washy chap that ever cocked his eye at a woman; he might, I say, if me an' him hadn't had a regular knock-down-and-drag-out row. He was drinking once, and said more than I could stand about a hoss trade I'd made with a cousin o' his, and it ended in blows. The crowd parte

reckon," Dixie Hart s

y. "I cursed man and God. That gal was my

neglected her and finally went off West with

ything that was going on. All that didn't do me any good, I'm here to tell you. Her trouble become mine. I

he was dead?" The girl leane

black veil, and bowed over like, as if she was under a heavy load. I reckon no woman the Lord ever constructed is quite as attractive to the eye uncovered as she is partly hid, for we are always hunting for perfection, and so nothing under the sun seemed to me to be so good and pure and desirable as Hettie did. I even gloried in the attention she paid his mammy and daddy. I thought it was fine and noble, and that it gave the lie to the charge that women are changeable. I don't want you to think that

oming to see me. She has me on her visiting list so she can devil me. She has no work to do at home, and so she comes over to nag me. She never has a beau or gets a thing to wear without trotting over to tell me ab

lk agin a lady, Dixie, but she lays herself open to it, and is so much like a man in some things that I forget what's due her as a woman. She has such a sneering way, too. That reminds me. I heard her mention my name when I passed you and her at the spring the other day. I couldn't hear what she said, but

hat you won't think it is worse than it really was. It wasn't such an awful thing, and she was laughing more at her own smartness than at you.

ew way to put it, anyway," he said. "I think I could laugh hearty at that joke if it was on some other fellow,

nt on, diplomatically. "She said it was good

e'd been sending 'em all her spare change, so that was explained. You'd never know the old woman was about unless you stumbled over her in the dark, for she is as quiet as a mouse, and never says a thing nor listens to anybody but him. He's all right. The old man's all right. I really think I'd miss 'im if he was to leave. I never like to encourage him too much, but I often laugh at the jokes he plays on folks. People poke fun at me for having him around, but he drives off the blues sometimes. He showed me what to expect from him the first day he got here. He come down to the store, and walked in and looked around till he saw the tobacco-boxes behind the counter, and he went to 'em and pulled a plug off of each one, and smelt of 'em and looked at 'em in the light. Then h

xcuse me, Alfred," she said, "but it does seem

he said, dryly. "If I could get as good a joke as that on an enemy o

kle paid for the tobacco or not,

ndy which he took from a jar. He said it was for his wife's sweet tooth; but if she got any of

f their remarks emerge from the kitchen door, and hang his slou

out and reverberated from the mountain-side. "Breakfast is ready. He eats like a horse

smiled. "That's as odd as Carrie's 'stepfather

ing away, "the Sunday-school hymn says, 'Kind wo